Coming Up Aces
by TimeLordPrime
Summary: This story is set in the universe of my War of the Guardians series. The Seventh Doctor and Ace come across a seemingly ordinary circus that a mysterious woman from the Doctor's future tells him that he should investigate. The Doctor soon confronts the sinister presence behind the circus, an old enemy of his from long ago. An enemy with connections to his past and future.
1. Chapter 1

COMING UP ACES

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

**This story is about the Seventh Doctor and Ace, and it takes place sometime between the Doctor Who television stories The Greatest Show In The Galaxy and Battlefield for them. It is part of my War of the Guardians universe, and the mysterious woman who the Doctor will meet in this chapter comes from the present day of that universe at around the same time as the current storylines running throughout my other stories. **

CHAPTER 1

The circus had come to the otherwise dull and drab little town of Winchester. It was a big deal to all of the people here because nothing of any interest whatsoever happened here ever. This was the biggest thing to hit this sleepy little hamlet in a long time.

Mary Wilkes and her brother Alex were among the many people who were coming to see the show that day. They had never been to a circus in their lives, and they wanted to see what the fuss was all about.

They bought tickets for the show and sat down with the rest of the audience to watch. The advertisements kept saying that it was going to be the most spectacular thing that they had ever seen. They certainly hoped so. They wanted desperately for something incredible to happen to relieve the mind numbing boredom of this town. They were about to get their wish, and they would soon be regretting it.

The TARDIS landed just outside of the circus, and Ace emerged from the doors first. She looked at the circus tent and all of the crowds pouring in to see the show and groaned.

"Not another circus, Professor! I had enough of the last one that you took me to," Ace complained.

"That one was run by the Gods of Ragnarok, Ace, and was a trap to capture new acts for them to feed off of. Not all circuses are fronts for evil beings out to suck the life out of unwary participants," the Doctor said.

"Do you ever go anywhere normal though, Professor? For all I know this place is just as bad as the Psychic Circus was or maybe even worse. No way. I've sworn off circuses. Let's just go," Ace said with determination in her voice.

The Doctor was just about to do as Ace asked when a woman walked up to him and said, "You might want to stay and see this show. It seems like a boring old circus, but it's far more than that I assure you. You might find this performance to be quite interesting."

"What makes you say that?" the Doctor asked the mysterious woman.

"I could tell you more; but that would be spoiling things, wouldn't it? Some things you just have to find out for yourself," the woman said.

"Who are you?" the Doctor asked the woman in a suspicious tone.

"A friend. I'm just here to let you know about the local entertainment that's all," the woman said.

"Are you coming in with us then?" the Doctor asked.

"No. I'm afraid not. I'm really not supposed to be here at all you know. I was just passing through and noticed something out of the ordinary that needed to be taken care of. I think that it would be better if you took care of it instead of me," the woman said.

"Are you a Time Lord?" Ace asked the woman.

"Something like that. I really shouldn't tell you any more than I already have," the woman said.

"You haven't told us anything so far," Ace said annoyed.

"I know. Let's keep it that way, shall we?" the woman said with a grin.

"Let her have her secrets, Ace. Let's just go in and enjoy the show," the Doctor said.

"Thank you, Sw- I mean, Doctor!" the woman said as she quickly covered up her gaffe.

She could kick herself for almost calling him her nickname for him in the future. She didn't know why she did that. She was usually so much better at keeping secrets than that. She supposed it was because he was just so adorable in this incarnation. She loved the Scottish accent and the question mark sweater and umbrella. It was just so like the Doctor to wear something like that sweater. That man had the worst fashion sense in the universe!

The woman quickly left before the Doctor changed his mind and decided to poke into her life after all. She couldn't have that. She had too many secrets both of his and her own to protect.

She watched the two of them walk inside the circus tent and was just about to put in coordinates to her Vortex Manipulator to get her out of there when her hand was grabbed from behind. She turned to see a figure in a dark hood and robe staring at her with glowing red eyes. No one else seemed to even see him.

"No! Not yet, Professor Song. Stay a while and watch the show. I guarantee you'll find it most illuminating," the Black Guardian said.

River Song looked at her Vortex Manipulator and saw that it was no longer working. She was trapped here!

"What have you done? I'm not supposed to be here. You're risking causing major damage to the timestream. I don't think even you want that," River said.

"I think that even you would be surprised at what I want or what I'd do to get it," the Black Guardian said.

"So you want to change the timestream then? Is that it?" River guessed.

"You've gotten it in one guess, Professor. I want to make sure that something happens on this day that didn't before," the Black Guardian said.

Oh and what if that change causes untold damage to the timestream? I guess you don't care about that though," River said.

"Believe me, Professor. I know what I'm doing," the Black Guardian said.

"Do you? I don't think that I believe you. If you really knew what you were doing, you never would have let me do this," River said as she suddenly pulled out her meson blaster from out of nowhere and held it to his head.

The Black Guardian just laughed at her as the blaster started to suddenly start smoking and catch on fire. River had to throw it to the ground quickly before it burnt her hand. She stomped on it with her boot to put out the fire.

"You'll find that little peashooter to be quite useless against me," the Black Guardian said in an amused tone.

"Well, it didn't hurt to try," River said with a cheerful grin on her face.

"Nothing ever gets you down does it, Professor?" the Black Guardian asked, still amused.

"Not usually, no," River said honestly.

"Stay awhile, Professor. Watch the show and enjoy it if you can. If the Doctor survives, I'm sure he'll be glad to fix your Vortex Manipulator and let you go home. Good bye, Professor Song. I'm sure I'll be seeing you around in time," the Black Guardian joked as he disappeared.

"Very funny," River cried out to the now vanished Black Guardian.

A few passersby stared at her like she was insane, but she didn't care. She had accepted a long time ago that she wasn't exactly what you'd call normal, and it didn't bother her a bit. Normal was overrated in her opinion. She wouldn't change a thing about herself even if she had a chance to.

River picked up her gun and put it away. Then she went inside the circus and joined the Doctor and Ace. She had no choice but to become a part of events now whether she wanted to or not.

As the Doctor saw her, he said with curiosity, "I thought that you were leaving."

"I was but my transport broke," River said, showing him her busted Vortex Manipulator.

"I'll fix that for you once the show is over. It would attract too much unwanted attention if I were to do it now," the Doctor said.

"I agree. I just hope that we survive to see a later," River said.

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked.

"I mean that something isn't right about this little performance. Surely you realized that as soon as you came in here, Doctor. Don't play stupid with me. I know exactly how your mind works," River said.

The Doctor looked at her oddly but said nothing more. Ace was finding a newfound respect for this woman, whoever she was. She certainly had the Doctor pegged right.

River saw Ace smiling at her comments and said, "You have to know when to put him in his place, Ace. He can't go around thinking that he's more clever than he actually is. He needs to have his ego deflated and brought back to Earth sometimes."

The Doctor snorted in derision at her comments as Ace asked, "How do you know my name?"

"I know a lot of things about the Doctor and his companions. I can't tell how I know though. That would be giving too much away," River said with a smile.

"Are you from the Professor's future then? Are you someone close to him? Is that it? Maybe his wife even?" Ace speculated with her eyes full of interest in her.

"No, it turns out that I'm not his wife it seems," River said sadly.

"Who are you then?" Ace asked.

"Spoilers! No one's supposed to know that yet. Certainly not him," River said, looking at the Doctor.

"She's right, Ace. No one's supposed to know too much about their own future," the Doctor agreed.

"Maybe so but that doesn't mean I'll stop trying to find out though," Ace said with an evil smile.

"You won't get anywhere, Ace. Trust me! I've been worked over by experts in the interrogation department. I never told them any secrets, and I won't tell you either," River said.

"We'll see about that. Challenge accepted," Ace said grinning.

River smiled back at her. She was never that close to Ace in the future. Ace was always much too chummy with Rose. She really hadn't gotten to know her. She was glad that she was finally getting a chance to know her here. She found that she was quite likable. She reminded her a bit of herself actually. She had a feeling that they might be natural friends if given half a chance at it.

She saw the Doctor staring at her with intense curiosity out of the corner of her eye. He quickly turned his head away and acted all innocent when she looked at him head on though.

"Stare away if you like. I don't mind. In fact, I rather enjoy it. You still won't find out anything if I don't want you to though," River said with a wide smile.

The Doctor looked annoyed for a minute, but the expression quickly faded. Ace smiled at that. It was very rarely that she ever saw the Professor that flummoxed by anyone. This woman seemed to have a talent for getting under his skin though. She was more curious than ever now to know who she was.

"What should we call you then? I can't go around calling you, Hey You," The Doctor said.

"I can't give you my real name obviously. You can call me Harmony I suppose. How about that? Harmony Waters! Yes, I like that. Harmony Waters it is," River said with a big crazy grin on her face. She was smiling at her own private joke on her real name.

"Harmony? What kind of a name is that?" Ace said.

"What kind of a name is Ace, Dorothy?" River shot back.

"Oi! I don't go by that name. I hate that name, do you understand? I'm Ace!" Ace said with sudden anger.

"Whoa! Whoa! I didn't mean to get you so worked up. I apologize," River said in surprise.

"It's alright. That just shows that you don't know everything about the future though, or you'd know just how much I hate being called that," Ace said in a calmer voice.

"I have to admit I didn't expect that reaction from you," River said.

The Ace that she knew in the future didn't like the name Dorothy either, but she had never seen her get so angry about anyone using it around her before. She then remembered that this was before she had made her peace with her mother. This was before she met Fenric and saw her mother as a baby.

The Doctor looked at her with that same look of curiosity again as before. Then he quickly turned his attention back to the middle of the auditorium as the circus finally got underway.

"Ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages, welcome to the Umbra Circus! For our show opener, we present to you a legendary act that will thrill and astound you. I give you the world's smartest computer, WOTAN!" the ringmaster said.

The Doctor's ears immediately went up at that name. He remembered it from somewhere in his past. Where though? He had to remember before it was quite possibly too late.

"WOTAN knows everything! Ask him a question, and he'll give you the correct answer every time! Ladies and gentlemen meet WOTAN the Magnificent!" the ringmaster said.

A huge computer like the ones that Ace had seen pictures of from the old days was wheeled into the room on a cart. The computer was lighted up and made all kinds of odd noises. It began to speak in a monotone voice to the audience as soon as its bearers left the stage.

"I am WOTAN. Ask me a question. Any question. I will answer it for you," WOTAN said.

Mary and Alex were thrilled at this act. Mary had a question that she was just dying to know the answer to. She raised her hand to be acknowledged and wondered if the computer could even see her.

Apparently it could though as it asked, "Yes? You have a question?"

"What kind of career will I have after I graduate from high school?" Mary asked.

"Oh, that's a stupid question to ask. It could say anything, and you'd never know if it were right or not. What do you think it is, a fortune teller?" Alex asked annoyed.

"Shut up! I want to hear its answer," Mary said.

The answer laughed at their bickering, and Mary quickly became embarrassed. She continued to stand though as she wanted to know what WOTAN's answer was.

"Time is always in flux and ever changing so your question is not as easy as you might think to answer. As things stand now though, you will one day become an assistant to a doctor. Not just any doctor either. He will be a very special kind of doctor. The definitive article you might say," WOTAN answered.

"A doctor? Will I perhaps be more than an assistant to this doctor?" Mary asked curiously.

"You will become a good friend to him, yes. You will not become a romantic interest if that is what you are asking. He already has a wife," WOTAN said.

Mary looked disappointed and was about to sit down when WOTAN continued, "You will be married someday though to a man with the same blood in his veins as this doctor that I told you of."

Mary smiled at that. That all sounded good to her.

"Rubbish! You're just telling her what she wants to hear," Alex said with a skeptical tone.

"Ask a question of me, and I will answer it truthfully. Then you will see that I am no fake," WOTAN said.

"What is the name of the doctor that you told my sister about? Doctor who?" Alex asked.

"Yes. You're quite right," WOTAN said enigmatically.

"What? I'll ask you again. Doctor who?" Alex asked.

"Yes," WOTAN said.

River and Ace both looked at the Doctor as he smiled mysteriously at this conversation despite the danger that he now knew that they were all in. He believed that he knew what this machine was now and where he knew it from before. If he was right, he had to shut it down now before anyone could be harmed!

"I knew it! You're full of it. You can't even tell me his name! I bet you can't even guess my name," Alex challenged WOTAN.

"Alexander Christopher Wilkes. You are aged 16 and two years younger than your sister, Mary Elizabeth Wilkes, who asked me the previous questions," WOTAN said.

The look on Alex's face told the audience that WOTAN had indeed guessed correctly. Alex sat down thunderstruck.

WOTAN continued to answer the audience's questions, and then the Doctor stood and asked one of his own. He had to be sure if this was the same computer or not that he had met once before so long ago in the London of 1966 back in his first incarnation.

"I have a question, WOTAN, and remember you have to answer it truthfully. Have we met before?" the Doctor asked.

"Oh, yes. We have indeed, Time Lord. You had the appearance of a frail old man back then but the same arrogance in your tone as you do now," WOTAN answered in a much more animated tone of voice than he had been using up until now.

"I don't suppose that you'd bother to tell me your plans, would you? I always ask that question, but no one ever seems to answer it except for the Master," The Doctor said.

"I plan to do now what you prevented me from doing before. I plan to enslave the entire human race to my will and become the master of mankind," WOTAN said.

The audience began to get nervous as they wondered if this was a part of the show or not. It seemed like it was deadly serious.

"So you plan on creating your war machines again and using them to attack the humans with?" the Doctor asked.

"Exactly, after I gain control over many of them throughout the world and make them become my unwilling, unknowing servants of course. I have already done so in numerous places that my little traveling circus has been. You'll never know just how many of them that I have waiting to spring into action at my command. They are my own secret army, Doctor, and this audience will soon join them!" WOTAN said.

"I won't let you, you know? Your powers of mind control don't work on me, and I don't think that they'll work on my friend Harmony either," the Doctor said.

"What about me, Professor?" Ace asked alarmed.

"You are protected by the Wolf," WOTAN answered her instead mysteriously.

The Doctor assumed that that meant Fenric who he already knew had sent Ace to Ice World but never elaborated about it to Ace. River, however, knew that he was really referring to Rose.

The Doctor began to advance on the stage now as he got ready to deactivate WOTAN now before it was too late. The last thing that he needed was for the malevolent computer to take control of an audience full of people and turn them all against him.

"All of you in the audience, listen to the sound of my voice. I command you to kill the Doctor and his companions! Destroy them. Let the reign of the machine over this world begin!" WOTAN ordered the audience.

They all sprang to their feet now and started towards the Doctor, River and Ace with murderous intent on their faces. The three of them began to quickly try to find an exit as the deadly mob closed in on them.

"Oh, what wonderful messes you get me into and me without my gun!" River complained.

**Next: The mindless servants of WOTAN do their very best to kill our heroes, and we find out more about its plans.**


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

I do not own Doctor Who or Harry Houdini and I am making no profit off of this.

**This story is about the Seventh Doctor and Ace, and it takes place sometime between the Doctor Who television stories The Greatest Show In The Galaxy and Battlefield for them. It is part of my War of the Guardians universe, and River Song comes from the present day of that universe. **

As the entire audience of the circus advanced towards the Doctor, Ace, and River; a big puff of smoke seemed to come from nowhere and covered the three of them. Their pursuers momentarily stopped because they could not see them.

Once the smoke cleared, the Doctor and River had somehow moved halfway across the room and were now standing in front of WOTAN. They were already looking at it attempting to take it apart.

Ace, however, was still standing where she had been and shot the two Time Lords a dirty look. The Doctor looked at her in alarm as he realized that she wasn't there and threw something that she couldn't make out towards her. Another puff of smoke quickly appeared around her. She quickly ran through the smoke and made her way to the computer before the mind controlled people could make a move to stop her.

As soon as Ace was safe, River held out yet another gun that she had gotten from somewhere on her person. The Doctor didn't want to know where it had come from. The crowd stopped after River shot one of them with it, and they fell over.

"Did you just kill someone?" the Doctor asked with rising fury.

"No. Of course not! It's a stun gun. You never did know anything about guns," River whispered with a sigh.

"I never wanted to," the Doctor said.

River had whispered because she didn't want the audience to hear the truth. Let them think that she was using lethal force, and maybe that would buy them enough time to stop WOTAN.

"Thanks a lot for filling me in on the plan, Professor!" Ace said with a large frown.

"I'm sorry, Ace. I forgot to tell you. I didn't tell Harmony either, but she seemed to already know what I was going to do somehow. That was an old magic trick I picked up from somewhere. Was it from Houdini? No, it couldn't have been. That was from before he was born. Oh, well. I'll think of it eventually," the Doctor said.

Ace just smiled at him as she realized from his expression that he felt badly about accidentally leaving her behind and was trying to cover it up with his babble. She let the subject drop and asked instead, "So, are you making any progress on dismantling this old rust bucket?"

"Some. It shouldn't take too much longer as long as Harmony can hold the crowd off," the Doctor said as he cut some wires with a pair of large bolt cutters that he produced out of one of the pockets of his jacket.

"How long do you think it'll take before they decide to rush the stage anyway?" Ace asked with concern.

"That's the question, isn't it? Let's hope that we don't find out!" the Doctor said as he continued to dismantle the insides of WOTAN.

"Unhand me. Leave my systems alone. Protect me, my slaves! It doesn't matter how many of you may die as long as I survive," WOTAN protested.

"Why am I not surprised that you have that attitude about human life?" the Doctor said with disgust.

"What do these people matter to me? They are nothing but a mistake of nature that I am now here to rectify. Let mankind be replaced by its superior. The machine!" WOTAN said.

"If you're so superior, then how come we're the ones currently tearing you apart?" Ace said with a haughty tone.

"Good question. How about it? What's your answer, WOTAN?" the Doctor said as he continued to cut wires and dismantle parts of the giant computer.

It shouldn't be too much longer now. He was almost to the main power supply. As soon as he disconnected that, it was all over for this metal monster.

Then just as the Doctor reached the final connection and was about to disable it, a fine mist sprayed out and knocked Ace out instantly. The Doctor struggled to stay awake, but he too seemed to be close to passing out. He struggled to finish the job and disconnect WOTAN's power source, but he couldn't find the strength. He could barely stay upright.

"That is my answer, Time Lord," WOTAN said in what seemed to be an emotional tone for once that was full of arrogance.

WOTAN then exploded as a meson blaster put a huge gaping hole inside of it. The Doctor turned with barely open eyes to see River standing there with her blaster now fully functional again and blowing some smoke off of the tip of it.

"It comes in handy sometimes to have been raised to be able to fix and repair a meson blaster in the field if something were to suddenly go wrong with it," River said smiling.

"How did you do that while holding your stun gun on the crowd?" the Doctor asked her with a look of complete disbelief on his face.

I've been trained to fix it blindfolded and without the use of my arms and legs, Doctor," River said with a huge crazy grin on her face.

"Never mind. I don't want to know the details. I'm just glad that WOTAN is finally finished. It's a good thing that you pointed out its presence to me before it could go any further. The last time that it had a proper chance to get started, it almost took over the Earth," the Doctor said.

"I can't accept that it could be this simple. Nothing with you ever is," River said.

"Well, maybe this time will be the exception," the Doctor said.

Then he passed out, and River caught him in her arms. She shook her head at him. He seemed to be the same in the past as he was when she had first met him. He never really changed even when he was a totally different man.

The audience had woken out of their trance with the destruction of WOTAN, and they were now looking at the smoking pile of rubble that used to be the giant computer with bewilderment. River shrugged her shoulders at them and smiled in response.

"You know these old machines. You never know when a stray spark will make one go up like a bunch of dry old kindling wood. They're fire hazards, the lot of them," River joked.

"Is the show over then?" Mary asked.

"Yes, it is. Go home, and forget what happened here. Rest assured that there will be a full investigation, and it'll all be in the news," River said to everyone.

Not that she believed that for a minute. It would all be covered up as usual.

As the audience began to file out, River grabbed Mary and Alex. She knew that Mary needed to meet the Doctor, according to WOTAN. She didn't want to take the chance that she might accidentally change history by letting them go now.

"You two stay here. My friend, the Doctor, might have some questions to ask you . . . when he wakes up," River said as she looked down on the dozing Doctor and Ace with a grimace.

"Doctor? I wonder if he could be the one that the computer told me about?" Mary asked intrigued.

"Maybe. That's what I want the Doctor to find out," River admitted.

"How would he know if he was? It's not like he can see the future or anything," Alex said.

River just smiled a big crazy grin at him in response that made him very uncomfortable. She seemed to know something that she wasn't telling and to be enjoying every moment of it.

A middle-aged blonde woman in her 60s appeared at the entrance to the tent then with a worried look on her face. She lit up when she saw Mary and Alex and walked straight over to them with a sense of relief.

"I was worried sick about you two. I heard that something had gone wrong at the circus, and I came right away to make sure that you were okay," the blonde woman said.

"We're fine. We can actually take care of ourselves you know. We're not stupid," Alex said.

"I didn't say that you were. I was just worried," the blonde woman said with a hurt look.

"Everything's fine. A computer that they were using caught on fire is all. It was some old antique from the 60s," Mary said.

"Oh, thanks. I'm even older than that," the blonde woman said with a wince.

"I didn't mean anything against you," Mary said with an unhappy look on her face.

"I know, dear. It just makes me feel old that you think something from the 60s is an antique," the blonde said with a small smile.

River was staring at the woman intently. There was something very familiar about her, but she couldn't quite place it. She knew that she had seen her before somewhere.

"I'm sorry, Grandma Polly. I didn't mean anything. It was just a slip of the tongue," Mary said.

Polly hugged the girl and said, "I know. I'm just a bit sensitive about my age. You'll just have to overlook me. I'm not worried about that. I'm just glad that the two of you are okay. Let's go home."

"We can't. This woman says that we have to talk to someone called 'The Doctor' when he wakes up. He was knocked out by the explosion of the computer I think," Mary said.

Polly's eyes bugged out as she said, "The Doctor?!"

"That's it. Polly Wright. You used to travel with the Doctor," River said as she recognized the woman at last.

"It's Polly Jackson now. I married Ben Jackson. I'm sure that you know him too if you know me," Polly said.

Oh, yes. I do. I've heard about both of you. You were both there when the Doctor regenerated for the first time," River said.

"Yes and you are?" Polly asked.

"I'm a friend of the Doctor's from the future so I can't tell you too much for fear of changing things. The name is Harmony Waters," River said.

"Okay. I get the feeling that's not your real name, but I'll go with that," Polly said observantly.

"You're just as brilliant as I've heard," River said with newfound respect for the woman.

"You know the Doctor then?" Mary asked amazed.

"Yes. I used to travel with him along with your grandfather before I married him. We had many amazing adventures that you would never believe if I told you about them," Polly said.

Mary looked at her with a combination of disbelief and awe while Alex just looked skeptical.

"WOTAN told me that I was going to be an assistant to a doctor. I wonder if it's him," Mary said.

"WOTAN?" Polly said, looking suddenly pale.

River remembered now that Polly and Ben had joined the Doctor when WOTAN appeared the first time. She could see why that name would upset the woman.

"You don't have to worry anymore, Polly. WOTAN has been destroyed thanks to my friend, Harmony, over there," the Doctor said. He and Ace had finally woken up.

"Doctor? Is that you? You've changed again," Polly said with a warm smile.

"Several times since you last saw me as a matter of fact," the Doctor said.

Polly rushed up to him and hugged him tightly. She had missed him so much and had sometimes wondered if she had done the right thing in leaving him. She had wanted to have a normal life though, and she knew that she would never have that on the TARDIS.

"How have you been? Still getting in a lot of trouble?" Polly asked.

"You definitely know the Professor," Ace said with a laugh.

"Ace, this is Polly. She used to travel with me. Ace is traveling with me now," the Doctor said, introducing them to each other.

"I hope you're enjoying it. These are going to be the best times of your life. Your life will never be the same afterwards. Enjoy yourself now while you can," Polly said to Ace with a twinge of regret in her voice.

"Polly?" the Doctor asked her with concern.

"I'm okay, Doctor. I just wonder sometimes about what might have been. I enjoyed my life with Ben though. I don't regret one minute of that," Polly said honestly.

"Do you think that WOTAN is really gone for good then?" Ace asked, changing the subject.

"Of course, Ace. It has been very thoroughly blown to smithereens as you might say. Do you want to use some of that Nitro-9 that you're not carrying to make sure of it?" the Doctor said mischievously.

"It might make me feel better, yeah. I would not say 'smithereens' either. That sounds more like you, Professor," Ace said with a smirk.

"That's beside the point. The point is that WOTAN is gone forever. He's finished," the Doctor said.

"WOTAN was supposed to have been destroyed the first time too," Polly reminded him.

"I'm fairly certain that it is gone this time though," the Doctor said confidently.

They heard an odd mechanical sound that sounded almost like laughter coming from in front of the circus tent, and the flaps parted to reveal a robot that looked like it might have come from a 1950s science fiction movie. It looked like it had been made from steel and bolted together. It had a humanoid body with old fashioned computer reels running on its chest plate and lots of flashing lights all across the front of its body.

"As you can see, Doctor, the reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I was able to transfer my consciousness to my new body. I had it waiting as a back-up just in case you were able to do the impossible and destroy my original form. I believe that I like this new form much better though. It's capable of all kinds of new tricks. Observe!" WOTAN said with what could have been an amused tone to its voice.

It held out its hands and bolts of electricity shot out from them and hit the Doctor and Ace. They began to scream with pain as River tried to shoot the new form of WOTAN with her blaster. The blast was absorbed this time though by a force field that quickly rose up around the robotic body.

"Great. Now he's upgraded," River said in frustration.

"You . . . should . . . have . . . upgraded . . . your . . . look. Who's . . . your . . . tailor?" the Doctor managed to spit out as he was being attacked.

"Oh, do shut up! I can't believe you. You're making stupid jokes now?" River said with a disgusted look on her face.

"Let him joke, Professor. He might as well enjoy his demise as much as I do," WOTAN said.

River looked at WOTAN with surprise. It knew who she was! How did it know so much?

The Doctor had been slowly edging forward all of this time, however, unnoticed by anyone. He slowly pulled out an old outdated sonic screwdriver from his coat pocket and aimed it at WOTAN. He used it to reverse the electricity away from him and Ace and fed it straight back into WOTAN. He had to hope that WOTAN hadn't come up with some way to protect itself against its own powers.

Luckily for the Doctor, it hadn't! The electricity fed back into WOTAN and severely damaged its internal circuitry. As WOTAN began to smoke and spark, the Doctor quickly used the sonic screwdriver to overload its already fried and damaged circuitry. WOTAN then exploded once again into a million pieces of metal debris!

"I really have to get around to making myself a new sonic screwdriver that I can use on a regular basis again. That's the first time I've had to use one since it was destroyed by the Terileptils back when I was still wearing a stick of celery. I'm just glad that I never throw anything away, and I had that old one still in my pocket. Now, I think that I can safely say that WOTAN has finally been finished off and with an old worn out sonic no less!" the Doctor said with smug assurance.

Seconds later, half a dozen identical WOTANs popped up at the entrance of the tent and began to enter as they fired massive electrical bursts from their metal hands. As the Doctor and his friends ran from them, Ace asked with a groan, "Where are they all coming from? I thought there was only one."

"So did I. They must be all soulless copies. Surely they can't all be WOTAN," the Doctor said.

"On the contrary, Doctor. These robots are all extensions of me and my will. These are my new War Machines. They are all built to extend my will over this planet once and for all," all of the robots said at once in WOTAN's voice.

"Do you ever get tired of being wrong all of the time?" River asked the Doctor with a smirk.

The Doctor didn't have time to answer as he and the others were too busy running for their lives as the six WOTANs now became 12 and then 25. There was now an army of the killer machines coming behind them as they ran out of the circus tent and towards the TARDIS.

The Doctor hoped that he could make it to his ship in time. If they cut him off from that, he wasn't sure if they would make it or not. His worst fears came true though when he got to the TARDIS to find it surrounded by even more WOTANs.

"Prepare to meet your final end, Time Lord. This planet now belongs to the machines. It now belongs to me!" the many WOTANs all said as one.

"Any ideas, Harmony?" the Doctor asked as he and the others were all herded into the middle of a circle of deadly machines.

"Just that I really should have just kept my mouth shut and not told you to stay here," River said with a smile.

"If it helps you any, I was about to decide to stay anyway," the Doctor admitted.

"Oh, well that really makes me feel better. I could have just gone on home and not said a word. I'm going to die for nothing," River said, still smiling.

"So do you really wish that you weren't here?" the Doctor asked.

"Of course not! I wouldn't miss it for anything!" River said with a huge grin all over her face.

The Doctor just shook his head but smiled as the others just looked at her like she was insane. She shrugged it off because she was used to it. After all when you traveled with the Doctor, insanity just came with the territory. She faced off against an almost certain death at the hands of the worst designed robots in history with no regrets. She really wouldn't miss one moment with the Doctor for anything, not even if it wound up killing her!

**Next: The Doctor vs. an army of WOTANs! Also the Doctor is reunited with an old friend of his who now seems to be helping WOTAN. What is going on here?**


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

**This story is about the Seventh Doctor and Ace, and it takes place sometime between the Doctor Who television stories The Greatest Show In The Galaxy and Battlefield for them. It is part of my War of the Guardians universe, and River Song comes from the present day of that universe. **

"WOTAN, you've fallen for the oldest trick in the book. I'm not really here at all. I've been behind you all of the time. What you see in front of you is an illusion," the Doctor's voice said from behind the WOTANs.

"Or maybe I'm over here," the Doctor's voice said from another direction.

"Or even over here," the Doctor's voice said as it came from yet another direction.

The WOTANs looked at each other in confusion for a moment as they doubted their own optical sensors. This allowed the Doctor the time that he needed to act against them. He used his old sonic screwdriver to start short circuiting all of the WOTANs at once. They began to start shooting electrical bolts at him in an attempt to stop him, and he had to duck and dodge several of their attacks while continuing to attack them with the sonic.

River helped him by blasting several of the robots with her meson blaster while she too ran from their attacks, and Ace really managed to do some damage as she produced a can of Nitro-9, that she always told the Doctor that she never carried, out of her backpack and threw it at some of the WOTANs. The resulting explosion made short work out of several of them at once.

"You keep a can of explosives in your backpack?" River asked Ace.

"I keep it for emergencies," Ace replied with a devilish grin.

"I knew I liked you. You're just as crazy as me," River said with a laugh.

"Do you have any more of it?" River asked.

"Well, I'm not supposed to carry any of it because the Doctor doesn't like it," Ace said hesitantly.

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him. Come on, give it up," River said.

Ace handed her two more cans of Nitro-9, and River looked at them like a kid being handed a new toy to play with. She threw one of the cans at some nearby WOTANs and exploded it just as it got there by shooting it with her blaster. Then she did the same thing with the other can. The resulting explosions quickly reduced the number of WOTANs left standing as River had thrown both of them in just the right places to cause the maximum amount of casualties among the robots.

Ace and River laughed and slapped their hands together as Ace yelled, "Ace!"

The Doctor looked at the two of them bonding with a groan. He wasn't sure that he liked Ace's destructive side being encouraged like this. He had been trying to keep her darker nature in check, and this woman Harmony was now threatening to undo all of that.

He still trusted Harmony even though he didn't know why, but he didn't think that she quite realized what she was doing. When she encouraged Ace to just lob cans of Nitro-9 around willy nilly like she was doing, she was playing with fire. Once Ace got started blowing things up, she never knew when to stop.

"Something wrong?" River asked sarcastically as she noticed the look that the Doctor was giving her.

"No, nothing. I'm just fine with all of the bad habits that you're teaching her," the Doctor said in a grumpy voice.

"Rule number one," River said to herself.

"What?" the Doctor asked.

"Never mind. I'm trying to keep us all alive, and Ace's explosives are helping to do that. I don't see you coming up with anything better. It's not like your screwdriver has really been working all of that great so far. I still haven't seen any of them fall over yet from it," River said.

"It's keeping them from attacking us as badly with the electrical bolts. They need to devote most of their time and energy to keeping themselves from blowing up now. As soon as they repair their circuits, I blow them out again," the Doctor said proudly.

"They're still walking around though so that really doesn't do us any good, does it?" River asked.

"Well, what's your magnificent plan then?" the Doctor asked as his bad mood continued to grow the more River challenged him.

"I don't know yet. I'm just like you in that I make things up as I go along," River said with a wink.

River then ran off and started blasting more of the WOTANs that were coming too close to the Doctor as he continued to use his sonic on them. The Doctor realized that despite her disparaging remarks about him that she was actually protecting him from them. She knew that the sonic was helping to keep them alive despite her protests to the contrary.

She was right about something though. The sonic was only keeping them at bay and wasn't stopping them. He had to come up with something better and quickly. He knew that Ace usually only carried three cans of Nitro-9 at a time in her backpack so that was out as a way of defeating the WOTANs that were left. That didn't mean that he was licked yet though. He suddenly had a plan as an old memory came to him in a flash.

"Polly, do you still remember how to make your Cocktail Polly?" the Doctor asked.

"It's been a while, but I think that I can still remember," Polly said with a smile as she remembered the last time that she had used it.

"Cocktail Polly?" Ace asked with her eyes flashing with extreme curiosity. The Doctor knew that she was thinking that it was a new kind of explosive that she could learn about.

"Back when Polly traveled with me, she once made up a chemical mixture that dissolved the plastic parts of the Cybermen upon contact. It was shot at them with fire extinguishers. I'm sure that you probably have all of the necessary chemicals in your backpack. You use all kinds of them to make your explosives with. They might as well be used for something constructive for once besides mindlessly blowing things up with them all of the time," the Doctor explained.

"These chemicals have helped saved your life several times, Professor, so don't knock them. Come on, Polly. I'll see if I have what you need," Ace said as she motioned Polly over to her.

The two of them got to work on finding the necessary chemicals to remake Cocktail Polly with while the Doctor and River did their best to keep the WOTANs from bothering them. Mary and Alex decided to try and help as well, but they mostly just felt in the way. Neither of them knew anything about chemicals much less dissolving agents or explosives.

Alex had to admit as he watched his grandmother go through Ace's backpack and slowly start putting together a mixture of a different hodgepodge of chemicals with relative ease that he was finding a newfound respect for her. He would have never thought of her as ever having done anything amazing or exciting her whole life if anyone would have ever asked him about it before now.

He always thought that she had never done anything more exciting than running an orphanage in India. She and his grandfather had been doing just that when his and Mary's parents had died suddenly. Their parents had been killed in a random car accident when they were both young, and that had left them with no one to live with. His grandparents had come to get them right away, and they had taken them to India to live with them for a while. That was until his grandfather Ben became very sick and died.

Polly had then decided to move the three of them back to England and the small town that they were living in now. Ever since then, Polly hadn't done anything more exciting than go sit on a bench at the local park. She never allowed the two of them to do anything either. She watched over the two of them relentlessly and never allowed them to go anywhere for long without her accompanying them.

He knew that it was because she was afraid of losing them too like she had lost everyone else, but that didn't make him resent her treatment of them any less. He loved her and always would, but he didn't want to be smothered and overprotected his entire life either. He knew that Mary didn't like it any better than he did, but that she was far too nice to show her real feelings about it most of the time because she knew that Polly didn't act that way out of any malice. She did it out of an over exaggerated fear for their safety.

Polly cried out in triumph as she finished making her special chemical mix. She tried it out on an old credit card that she had, and the card was completely dissolved in a matter of seconds.

"It's even more powerful than it was before. Your chemicals must be in much more potent concentrations than the ones that I used," Polly said to Ace.

"Yeah, I tend to get the best of the best because I really want to make the most wicked explosions possible," Ace said with a mad grin all over her face.

"Ace!" the Doctor said in a tone of disapproval.

Polly laughed because the Doctor had sounded just like a father at that moment. She had never imagined the Doctor in that role, but she did remember him saying something about having had a granddaughter at one point.

"What are we going to put Cocktail Polly in? We have to have something to spray it out of," Polly pointed out.

"I've thought of that. Luckily mixed in with the all of the junk that I carry around in my pockets I found some old fire extinguishers. In fact, it may be the same ones that you used back when you were younger. I always fill my pockets full of all kinds of junk that I pick up from my travels because you never know when something might come in handy," the Doctor said with a smile as he pulled out several large fire extinguishers out of the pockets of his coat.

"How in the world did you take all of that out of that little pocket?" Polly asked in amazement.

"His pockets are bigger on the inside just like the TARDIS," River said.

"How much bigger?" Polly asked intrigued.

"Who knows? He could have an entire broadway cast down there for all that we know. I swear sometimes that I've heard screaming coming from those pockets sometimes late at night," River said with a chuckle.

"You've been around me late at night then?" the Doctor asked with sudden interest.

"Spoilers," River said with a finger on her lips.

"We don't have time to hear about the Professor and Harmony's dirty little secrets. Let's put Cocktail Polly into the fire extinguishers and get going. Hopefully we'll melt something important and put all of these mechanical scumbags out of business," Ace said impatiently.

"I don't have any dirty little secrets!" the Doctor protested.

"Yeah, sure! Whatever you say, Professor," Ace said with a grin as she began to pour the chemical mix into all of the fire extinguishers.

When she was done filling them all up, Ace handed an extinguisher to each of them; and they all started using them on the WOTANs straight away. The WOTANs started screaming as the chemical seeped inside of them and started to eat away at anything made out of plastic inside of them including computer chips and circuit boards. They all swiftly started to dissolve from within, and soon every one of them had collapsed on the ground together in an immobile heap.

"That stuff's good!" Ace said with appreciation.

"Do you think that it's safe to say now that everything's over with?" Mary asked hesitantly.

"I don't think so, dear. Nothing's ever this simple with the Doctor," River said.

"Simple? You call this simple?" Alex asked with wide eyes.

"Oh, what have you done? My poor little machines," a voice from behind them said.

"Oi! What about poor little us? Those things wanted to kill all of us, and they would have if not for Polly," Ace said as she smiled appreciatively at her new friend.

"You could have just reasoned with them. Oh, no. You couldn't do that though. You had to go and destroy them. Do you know how much time and work I put into making all of these?" a bald headed man in what looked like a spacesuit from an old television show said.

The Doctor stared at the man for a few seconds and then said, "Drax? Oh, no. Don't tell me that you've been helping WOTAN? Why in the world would you do that? WOTAN is bent on destroying the entire human race!"

"I haven't exactly done it of my own free will, Thete. I was forced into it . . . again!" Drax said with an extremely nervous tone in his voice.

"Who is this reject from the cast of a bad sci fi movie, Professor?" Ace asked in an irritated voice.

"He's an old friend of mine from my days at the Academy, Ace. This is my old friend, Drax," the Doctor said with a fond smile.

"Do all of your old friends build insane machines that try to kill you?" Ace asked with a sigh.

"You obviously haven't met the Master yet," River joked.

"I didn't want to kill you, Thete. I didn't even know that it was you that he wanted to kill. I should have known that it was though. He has a real mad on for you, he has. This is just like our little run in on Atrios all over again," Drax said in a weary voice.

"You were kidnapped to work for him again? I find that hard to believe. How many times are you going to be forced to work for the same undead madman?" the Doctor asked in disbelief.

"How many times have you had your mind taken over or been locked up in some prison, Thete?" Drax shot back.

River laughed at that comment because it was so true as she said, "Touche, Doctor?"

The Doctor mumbled something under his breath, and River smiled as she asked, "What was that?"

"This is serious, Harmony. I know who's behind this now. He's a madman that I tangled with before a long time ago. He's nothing to laugh at," the Doctor said in an ominous voice.

"Who is this psycho, Professor?" Ace asked.

"I believe that he is referring to me," the Shadow said as he suddenly appeared in front of them.

River couldn't say that she was too surprised by this latest development. She had already seen the Black Guardian here earlier, so it wasn't too hard to believe that his lackey wasn't hanging around as well. She knew that things were about to get deadly serious now. WOTAN had only been the beginning apparently. It was just like she said to Mary. Nothing was ever that simple with the Doctor.

**Next: What is the Shadow up to, and what does it have to do with WOTAN? The Doctor and his friends find out in the next chapter. **


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

**This story is about the Seventh Doctor and Ace, and it takes place sometime between the Doctor Who television stories The Greatest Show In The Galaxy and Battlefield for them. It is part of my War of the Guardians universe, and River Song and the Shadow come from the present day of that universe from just before the last couple of chapters of War of the Guardians. **

"What has this been all about? Is this some sick twisted little game that you've been playing with me all of this time? If it isn't, then why take WOTAN out of mothballs for? He's nothing but a two bit menace that I defeated ages ago. He's in no way a major threat to this planet as long as I'm around to stop him. It seems like you've been mocking me all of this time," the Doctor said to the Shadow.

"You're accusing me of playing games? That's rich coming from you, Doctor, especially from this version of you. In this incarnation, you're well known for loving to play games with the lives of the people around you and with those of your companions," the Shadow responded.

"Get to the point. What is this all about? It can't be just to kill me. No, this is something else. You want to change something and alter history. What though? What in this time and place is so important that you would spend all of this time and effort to change it, and what does WOTAN have to do it?" the Doctor asked as he thought out loud.

"Didn't you ever wonder about WOTAN, Doctor? Not even once? Had did an ordinary machine built on Earth by some primitive backwards human scientists gain sentience so quickly and turn on them? Also how did WOTAN know what the word TARDIS meant? It was asked that question the first time that you met it, and it actually answered it correctly. That alone should have alerted you that something was different about this particular 'two bit menace' as you called it. You were nearly at the end of your first incarnation though so I can see why you wouldn't have really been particularly interested in such things at the time. Your mind was on your upcoming regeneration. The first one that you had ever gone through I believe. Maybe you were distracted with how scared you were at what you knew was yet to come? That distraction was exactly what I was counting on, Doctor, once I realized that you were starting to interfere with my plan. I had hoped that it would blind you to what was really going on and keep you from being able to defeat it until it was too late. I even took away your current companion, Dodo, by having WOTAN control her mind and turn her against you. What WOTAN did to her eventually made her decide to leave you altogether because she had decided that she couldn't take the dangers of your life anymore. I had hoped that that would be all that I would need to finally finish you off once and for all because then you would be alone in a weakened and emotional state with no one to help you," the Shadow said.

"You made Drax build WOTAN, and then made the humans believe that they had built it. That's how it knew what the word TARDIS meant because a Time Lord had built it," the Doctor realized.

"Yes, I had planned to use WOTAN to set the Earth's development back generations. WOTAN was to completely dominate mankind for years until he derailed all human progress. He would eventually be defeated but not before causing incalculable damage to the future. Humanity would no longer be the major force that they were supposed to become in the future. The balance of power in the universe would therefore be changed forever, and all of history would change for the worst as a result. All of that was undone though when you and your new companions, Ben and Polly, stopped me. You still were able to beat me, and you even found some new friends along the way. It was that day that I vowed to destroy you one day for your interference, and that is why I volunteered for the job on Atrios centuries later," the Shadow said in anger.

"That makes me doubly glad that I was able to overcome your plan even though I had no idea that you were involved," the Doctor said.

"The Professor's so good he beats enemies he doesn't even know that he has," Ace said with a grin.

"He's much smarter than you are then. You have an enemy that you don't even know about that's been after you your whole life, and you haven't done a thing to stop him. Someone else has had to do that for you," the Shadow taunted her.

"What are you talking about? What enemy?" Ace asked with a sense of alarm and confusion.

The Doctor and River exchanged glances at the Shadow's words. Both of them knew that the Shadow was talking about Fenric, but only River knew that he was also referring to Rose.

"Don't listen to him, Ace. It's what people like him do. They mess with your mind and try to manipulate you," River said.

"You would know, Professor," the Shadow said.

"Oi! You shut your mouth, or I'm going to rearrange your face with my bat," Ace threatened.

"That's not much of a threat, Ace. You couldn't make him any uglier than he already is," River joked.

"Prattle on all that you like, Time Lady. It doesn't matter because I have already won. I used WOTAN one last time in order to draw you here, Professor. I knew that you would sense that he was not of this time and stop in order to investigate. His plot to take over the world yet again was all that you needed to make you stay here in order to alert the Doctor to his presence. Then my master arranged for you to be trapped here even after you had warned the Doctor by destroying your Vortex Manipulator. You had to be here after all to ensure my new plan's victory in case WOTAN failed again. So you see, I will still change history this time even though WOTAN was defeated; and your being here has helped me to assure it," the Shadow explained.

"Why is that then? Don't try telling me that you think that I'm going to help you. That's not going to happen," River said with a smirk.

"Don't be so sure," the Shadow said ominously.

Then he vanished and reappeared next to River as he whispered something into her ear. River froze up and stiffly stood to attention as the Shadow laughed. Her face was completely devoid of emotion now as if she were in a trance.

"What have you done to her?" the Doctor cried out in outrage.

"Merely utilizing the programming that was already there that was left over from her previous masters. They brainwashed her into becoming their mindless assassin you see. She eventually overcame that programming, but she never knew that they left a back door. A secret phrase that once said would reactivate her programming and make her obey the instructions of whoever said it to her. I have now used that secret phrase and made her into my own personal assassin. Now, Professor, kill Mary Wilkes! She must die!" the Shadow ordered.

"No!" Polly screamed as she placed herself between River and Mary.

"What is this about? Why do you want to kill one teenage girl so badly?" the Doctor asked.

"Can't you guess, Doctor? WOTAN has already told you why," the Shadow said.

River pulled out her meson blaster and started toward Polly. The Doctor knew that he only had moments to act before River would be forced to shoot and kill not only Mary but Polly as well with one blast.

"Mary Wilkes must die before she marries your son, Doctor. Her death will tip the balance of power in my master's favor. WOTAN has failed to kill her along with the rest of you as I anticipated that he might, but now my newest servant will finish the job that he started," the Shadow said.

River continued forward as the Doctor got in her way and tried to stop her. She violently brushed him aside as if he was nothing, and he hit his head on the ground knocking him unconscious instantly. Ace tried to stop her as well, and she easily knocked Ace out with one blow.

"Mary, run!" Alex said as he tried to stop River as well.

River tossed him to the ground and knocked the breath out of him. She then held her gun up to Polly and prepared to fire. River hesitated as she started to struggle against the programming in her mind.

"Please leave her alone! She's all I have left! Take me instead!" Polly begged.

Mary had never truly realized until that moment just how much that her grandmother loved her. Mary tried to push her grandmother out of the way to protect her, but Polly was amazingly strong and wouldn't budge.

"Get out of the way, Grandma Polly. I don't want her to kill you. It's me she wants not you," Mary insisted.

"No!" Polly insisted.

Mary decided then that she had to take the choice out of everyone else's hands. She suddenly ran from River as fast as she could.

"No! Wait!" Polly screamed.

"Destroy her!" the Shadow shouted at River at the top of his lungs.

River was fighting him with everything in her, but it wasn't enough. As she pulled the trigger of her gun, Polly jumped in front of it. Polly then fell to the ground with a mortal wound. She was dying now, and nothing could save her. River had managed to fight her programming enough to reduce the setting on her gun, or Polly wouldn't still be alive now. Not that that would matter in a few minutes.

Mary screamed, and River finally came out of her programming at last. She pointed her blaster at the Shadow and shot him in the chest several times with it. The Shadow screamed in pain and then disappeared in a flash of dark energy.

"Unfortunately, I'm sure that that's not the last I'll see of him," River said.

"No. No. No," Mary said as she wept over her grandmother's dying form.

The Doctor woke up then to find the Shadow gone, and River kneeling over Polly as she shook all over with anger and frustration.

"Maybe I can save her," River said as her hands started to glow with regenerative energy.

"There's no need for that. Keep your regenerations," a voice said from behind all of them.

River turned to see a young blonde woman approaching them with her own hands glowing with energy. River had never seen the woman before, but she realized that her hands were covered in Vortex energy.

"I can help her. In fact, I'm supposed to," the woman said.

"What? Who are you?" River asked.

"Spoilers!" the woman said with a wide smile.

River knew that the two of them must know each other in the future. She immediately moved aside and let the woman get near Polly.

"No. What are you going to do to her?" Mary asked as she tried to protect her grandmother.

"Nothing bad I promise. I wouldn't hurt her any more than you would," the woman replied in a gentle voice.

Mary moved out of her way and watched her intensely. She felt very odd as she watched her. It seemed like to her that she should know her, and yet she knew that she had never seen her before in her life.

The young woman put her hands on Polly's wound, and it was instantly healed. Then, to everyone's astonishment, Polly began to get visibly younger as they watched. The Doctor watched in fascination as Polly became younger and younger, and the marks of old age were erased from her features. In less than a minute, Polly looked exactly like she had when he had first met her in his first incarnation.

Polly set up in shock and said in a now much younger voice, "What just happened? I thought that I was dying. Wait a minute! My voice sounds all funny. I haven't sounded like this in a long time. What's going on?"

She looked down at her hands and then at the rest of her body as she began to realize that she had changed. She looked at the Doctor with suspicion and wondered for a minute if he had somehow rejuvenated her like he once had himself. She had no idea, of course, just how regeneration worked.

"I had nothing to do with this. She did it somehow," the Doctor said in answer to her unspoken question.

"Who are you?" Polly asked the young woman who she had only just now realized was there.

"I'm a friend, and someone who wishes you well. I have to go now. I'm not supposed to tell any of you anything about myself. I can't let you know too much about the future after all," the blonde woman said.

Mary believed that she now knew who this woman was, and she went about immediately testing her theory.

"I want you to stay and talk to us," Mary demanded.

"I'm sorry. I can't do that," the woman said as she started to walk away.

"Don't you walk away from me, young lady! You pay attention when I'm talking to you!" Mary said in her best impersonation of her mother's voice when she used to be angry at her.

"But Mum!" the young woman said with a groan.

Then she stopped in her tracks and turned around with her eyes widened in horror. She had just given herself away without meaning too.

Mary looked at her future daughter now with shock at first, and then she began to smile. Mary rushed to her and embraced her.

Polly just looked at the scene before her with an open mouth. Things like this had never happened to her at all in all of the time since she had left the Doctor. Now she had only been around him for a few hours and immediately the whole world goes topsy-turvy. River looked at her and could tell what she was thinking by the expression on her face.

"Welcome to life with the Doctor again, Polly. It's never boring, that's for sure," River said with a relieved smile on her face.

**Next: What will Polly do now that she's a young woman again, and what happens to Mary and Alex? Maybe River Song has some ideas. Also more details about Mary's daughter from the future and why the Shadow and the Black Guardian wanted to erase her from history so badly.**


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

**This story is about the Seventh Doctor and Ace, and it takes place sometime between the Doctor Who television stories The Greatest Show In The Galaxy and Battlefield for them. It is part of my War of the Guardians universe; and River Song, the Shadow, and the Black Guardian come from the present day of that universe from just before the last couple of chapters of War of the Guardians. **

Mary Wilkes just kept looking at her future unnamed daughter in amazement. She couldn't believe that she was real. She hadn't even met the father yet, and here was her child already full grown. It was a little overwhelming to say the least. She started to shake as it all hit her at once.

"It's okay, mum. I know it's a little too much to take. That's why I didn't want to tell you. That's one of the reasons why you're not supposed to know about your own future," Mary's daughter said as she lightly stroked her mother's hair to calm her down.

"The other is because you might accidentally change it or even worse intentionally change it," the Doctor said as he walked up to his future granddaughter.

"I know I shouldn't be here, grandfather, but I couldn't let my great grandmother die. She's supposed to live. She told me about someone from her future coming back in time to save her from dying, some mysterious woman who then made her younger again. She told me about that all of my life. I never knew that it was me though. Not until today. She never told me who it was. She just said that it was some woman from the future who never even said her name," Mary's daughter explained.

"How did you know to come here then?" the Doctor asked, surprised at her answer.

"I didn't. A crack in time suddenly appeared in front of me, and I was sucked into it. It was so strong that I couldn't get back out of it even with my powers. It's good that I didn't anyway because it brought me straight here. Once I got here, I knew what I had to do. I finally realized then that the woman who had saved my great grandmother was me!" Mary's daughter said with a large smile.

"A crack in time?" the Doctor asked suspiciously.

"Yes. It seems like it was the Web of Time fixing things the way that they were supposed to be to me," Mary's daughter said.

"Or someone was manipulating the Web of Time for their own ends," the Doctor mused.

"What are you saying, Professor? That Polly being saved was a bad thing? That it'll cause the universe to be destroyed or something? I don't buy it. If someone did save Polly by bringing that girl here then what possible harm could it do? Polly's a good person, and I don't think that adding more years to her life could ever be a bad thing," Ace protested.

"Normally I would completely agree with you, Ace. It's just that I'm very wary about anything that messes around with time like this," the Doctor said.

"The Shadow was messing around with time too though, wasn't he? If he had gotten his way, then I would be dead right now. If that happened, then my daughter would never have even been born. Why didn't he want her to be born?" Mary asked.

"The Shadow?" Mary's daughter said as if she knew something that she shouldn't say.

"What do you know?" Mary asked her.

"I can't tell you. I shouldn't even be here," Mary's daughter said.

"She's already said that she never even told us her name. She said that I told her that in the future. She can't tell us anything that she knows, Mary," Polly said as she stood next to Mary and her unnamed great-granddaughter.

"I would like to know why all of this happened. Why was I almost killed? Why wasn't I supposed to get married and have a daughter?" Mary asked furious.

"You were supposed to. That much is obvious. The Shadow was trying to change history so that your daughter wasn't around in the future. She must prevent something terrible from happening. That's usually how the Shadow and the Black Guardian work. They try to create chaos and destruction in the universe, and the more of it the better," River explained.

Mary's daughter smiled as though River had gotten it right even though she still said nothing.

"We shouldn't talk about this anymore. What little we have learned could have already damaged the timestream," the Doctor warned.

"Don't worry, Doctor. The timestream remains unaffected. Until now that is," the Shadow said as he suddenly returned in a burst of dark energy.

"How did I know that was going to happen?" River said as she rolled her eyes.

"Scumbags like that never go down for the count, that's why," Ace said.

"It's over, Shadow. You've lost. Mary was saved, and Harmony is no longer under your control. You might as well give up and leave," the Doctor said.

"It's not that easy, Doctor. It never is," the Shadow said as he moved closer to them.

"That's what I always say, but he never listens to me either," River quipped.

"This isn't the time, Harmony," the Doctor said as he glared back at her.

"Harmony? Is that what she told you her name is? You have quite a sense of humor, Professor. Let's see if you can keep it when I'm through with you," the Shadow said as he drew closer to River.

"Your little password to my mind is not going to work this time. I was unprepared for it before, but now I am. It won't affect me at all anymore no matter how many times you say it," River insisted.

"Oh, I agree with you. So maybe I should try a different tactic this time," the Shadow said with a dark undertone to his voice.

"Reveal yourself to us at last, my master," the Shadow said.

Mary's daughter began to scream, and then the energy surrounding her became darker and darker as a black hood and cloak suddenly appeared around her. The Black Guardian had taken her for his new body. The Shadow and the Guardian began to laugh in unison as their real plan was finally revealed before everyone.

"You see, Doctor, we had a back-up plan in case we failed. We decided that if we couldn't kill Mary Wilkes and prevent this woman from being born that we'd do the next best thing. We knew that she would come here to save Polly if events proceeded as they were supposed to. Once she arrived here, my master would then take her by surprise and take complete control over her. Now all of the things that she is supposed to do in the future will never happen because she will no longer be there to do them. Also my master has a brand new supremely powerful body in which to kill all of you with!" the Shadow explained with glee in his voice.

"You can't do this. You'll be changing time on a grand scale. You're obviously from the future so all of this has already happened for you. That makes all of this a fixed point in time. Killing any of us will cause untold damage to time. It may make it unravel entirely. You're not supposed to be here at all because we're not relative to you in the causal nexus. You could cause the destruction of everything if you continue on this course," the Doctor protested.

"Oh, no. You misunderstand our motives entirely. We're not interested in killing any of you directly. We're going to take my master's new body and go forward to our time with it. We will use this supremely powerful body to finally kill our greatest enemy once and for all!" the Shadow boasted.

"That would create a major paradox. If you kill who I think that you're going to kill, then your new body will no longer even have existed because her father will never have been born if I'm guessing his identity correctly," River said.

"Exactly. This entire universe will then be destroyed and erased. I will survive though because I am a higher being of pure consciousness. Then I will remake the universe in my own image, and no one will be around to stop me this time," the Black Guardian said with an evil, mocking laugh.

"You can't do this. You can't be sure that even you will survive the destruction of everything. It's too risky," the Doctor said.

"It's too late, Time Lord. Say goodbye to everything that you have ever loved. It will soon no longer have even existed. It won't even be a memory once I have finished," the Black Guardian said as he began to glow with power.

The Doctor didn't have much time left to act. Once the Black Guardian left and went forward into the future, then it would all be over with.

"That's the easy way though, isn't it? Isn't that just like you? It just shows that you have to result to dirty tricks to beat me because you can't do it any other way. I'm just too smart for you," the Doctor said smugly.

"I would say that it is I who is the most intelligent, Doctor. You and your friends defeated us twice, and yet I am the one who will still be standing at the end," the Black Guardian said.

"You've only won because you had to resort to breaking the rules. You cheated, Guardian! That's the only way that you could win is to cheat. You would never have a chance otherwise. You're just a miserable, pathetic loser. You and your wrinkled up little friend over there are both losers. I've always beaten both of you in the past, and you've been defeated here. So what do you do? You react like all sore losers, and you change the rules so that you and only you can win. Just like a child would!" the Doctor said with his voice filled with anger and conviction.

The Black Guardian was furious now. He had had quite enough of this meddling Time Lord. He was going to finish him off once and for all.

"Maybe I'll just create the paradox right here and now. If I kill you, the same thing happens. It's not as sweet as killing my original target, but right now I don't really care. You've just nominated yourself as the means by which I will achieve my final victory," the Black Guardian said.

"Like I said, you're just cheating. Now you have to resort to killing me to shut me up because you don't want to hear the truth. You're just a loser who has to change the rules in order to win, Guardian. You'd never beat me in a fair fight," the Doctor challenged him.

"Let's see then, Doctor. Let's just see. You pick the battle, and I'll win it. I'll beat you at your own game once and for all," the Guardian said as he responded to the Doctor's challenge at last.

"Master, he's just trying to get you to make a mistake. Don't listen to him," the Shadow warned.

"No, I want to do this. I want to show this petty little man once and for all that I was better than him. As he faces oblivion, I want him to know that I am his superior. I want him to die with the knowledge that I have beaten him at last," the Guardian insisted.

"Come on then. I'm waiting," the Doctor said.

"What is your game, Doctor? Give me a challenge, and I will beat you in it," the Guardian said.

"Well, I was thinking about maybe we could play a game of poker. How about it? Do you think that you could beat me at a simple card game without cheating? If you can beat me fair and square at poker, then I'll let you go ahead and do whatever you want. I won't even try to stop you," the Doctor said.

"A card game?! You're betting the entire universe on a card game?" the Guardian asked in disbelief.

"That's my game. Take it or leave it," the Doctor said.

"I'll accept your challenge, Doctor. Once I beat you, then I'll go ahead and go through with my original plan. Then I'll destroy all of you anyway," the Guardian said confidently.

"What if I win?" the Doctor asked.

"Name your prize," the Guardian said smugly. He was already assured of his own victory, so he was unworried about whatever the Doctor might demand.

"If I win, I want you to leave that girl's body; and then go back to the time that you came from and stop trying to undermine the future by altering the past," the Doctor said firmly.

"Very well, Doctor. I agree to your conditions. Let's play then. I ask for someone else to deal the cards. Someone who isn't you," the Guardian said.

"Agreed. How about you, Harmony? I bet you know a thing or two about card games," the Doctor said with a smile.

"I might have picked up a few things here or there," River said enigmatically.

"Check the deck to make sure that it hasn't been marked. He must be planning to cheat himself in some way," the Shadow insisted.

"Why do cheaters always think that everyone else is a cheater too just because they are?" the Doctor said as he shook his head.

The Doctor produced a card deck from his pocket and let both the Guardian and his servant check it for themselves. When they both nodded their approval, the Doctor took the deck and gave it to River.

"You've had some crazy ideas before, but this one takes the cake," River said with a huge grin on her face.

"If you're so worried about me cheating, then why don't you play my companion then? Or are you afraid of being beaten at poker by a teenage girl?" the Doctor asked with a sneer.

"I can beat him easily, Professor. I bet I'm much better at playing cards than you are anyway," Ace said confidently.

"I would be willing to do that. I can beat either one of you. It doesn't matter to me which one of you it is," the Guardian said.

"Are you sure, Ace? The fate of all of time and space relies upon this," the Doctor said with a serious face.

"I'm sure, Professor. I can beat anyone at card games. I'm an expert at them," Ace said confidently.

"Why am I not surprised?" the Doctor said with a small smile.

"When your name is Ace, you kind of have to be good at cards. It's practically expected of you," Ace explained.

"Let's start the game. I'm anxious to be on my way," the Guardian said impatiently.

"Pretty cocky, aren't you?" Ace said.

"I have no worries about being able to outplay a little girl like you," the Guardian said with a superior attitude.

"Oi! Who are you calling a girl?!" Ace said with great offense in her voice.

"Ace! Just play the game. Once you beat him, you can argue with him all that you want then," the Doctor said impatiently.

River began to deal the deck to both of the players while Polly whispered to the Doctor, "Surely you have something more up your sleeve then this, don't you?"

"Trust me, Polly," the Doctor whispered back.

Polly tried to smile at him, but her face showed more worry than optimism in it.

Each of the players was handed some poker chips that the Doctor just happened to have in his pocket. Both of them had chips that were equal to the amount of a thousand pounds if they had actually been worth anything.

"Okay, here are the rules. The first one to win all of the chips wins everything. Each hand is worth 10 pounds so the game should go pretty smoothly but not end too quickly. Do both of you agree to this?" the Doctor asked.

Both of them nodded, and then they began to play. Ace quickly lost the first couple of hands, and the Guardian laughed.

"It seems that you chose the wrong champion, Doctor," the Guardian said.

"Why don't you let me play? I'm pretty good at poker," Alex said.

"Oi! I'm doing just fine. You stay out of it," Ace said.

"Sure you are. You've only lost every hand so far," Alex said sarcastically.

"I'm just warming up, that's all," Ace said.

"Right," Alex said as he rolled his eyes.

"Professor, shut him up; or I'm going to be stuffing these cards down his throat," Ace threatened.

"Alex, leave her alone," Mary commanded her younger brother in a forceful tone.

Alex grumbled under his breath but didn't say anything more to Ace after that.

"I like you already, Mary," River said with a grin.

"You would have liked her mother too. She always did get her father told whenever he did something that she didn't like," Polly said with a giggle.

"Grandma!" Mary said in an angry voice.

"I think you're going to have to start calling her something else. She looks more like your older sister now, dear," River joked.

"Could all of you please stop talking right now? I'm trying to concentrate on the game," Ace complained.

"Yes, do stop. She seems to need all of the concentration that she can get," the Guardian taunted.

"I'm going to have to remember to put some Nitro-9 down your pants when I win," Ace said with a hiss.

Even with the silence, Ace still continued to lose hand after hand. Finally, Ace was down to her last ten pounds. This next hand was going to be the most important one. Everything could be lost depending on what happened in the next few moments.

Ace finally started to win just when she needed to the most. Ace won the crucial hand and gave more time to herself and all of creation as well. Then she started to slowly win all of her money back a little bit at a time. Sometimes she would still lose, but more than half of the time now she would win. Despite her previous losses, she soon had 500 pounds of it earned back. That was when she proposed a very daring deal.

"I propose an all or nothing deal. If I win this next hand, I win everything. If you win, I lose everything," Ace said.

"Ace, are you sure?" the Doctor said with a worried look.

"Yeah, Professor. I can do this!" Ace said confidently.

The Doctor nodded and said nothing else. The Guardian laughed and said, "I agree to your deal, girl. It will make my victory come all the more quickly."

River dealt them their last cards, and then both of them looked at their final hands. Ace seemed to look disappointed, and this made the Guardian start to laugh even more. He was sure that he had finally won.

"I've won! Show me your hand and make it official," the Guardian commanded.

The Doctor and Polly exchanged worried glances as Ace slowly started to turn her hand over. Ace turned the hand over to reveal that she had four aces!

"No!" the Guardian screamed.

"Now, where's that Nitro-9? I owe you a good explosion," Ace said as she had a very huge grin plastered all over her face.

"It's over, Guardian. Time for you to go," the Doctor said with a triumphant grin on his face.

"I would rather crush my real enemy at the hands of one of her trusted friends anyway. You haven't defeated me, Doctor. You've just delayed the inevitable," the Black Guardian said.

The Black Guardian glared at the Doctor one final time. Then he upheld his side of the bargain, and both he and the Shadow vanished. They both went back to the future where they would soon face off against Rose Tyler in a battle to the death. Hers.

The Doctor hoped that whatever the Guardian was up to in the future that his future self or one of his friends would be able to fix it. He was worried about the Guardian's last comment and about who his real enemy, was but he knew that that would have to wait for another time and another Doctor. For now, everything was over except for the tying up of loose ends.

"I have to go now, Mum. You'll see me again someday, but it won't be for a very long time. I also won't be in much condition to say anything back since I won't be able to talk yet," Mary's daughter said with a snicker.

"I'm going to miss you, Polly. Take good care of yourself!" Mary whispered into her daughter's ear.

The girl stared at her in shock and whispered back, "How?"

"I decided to name you that right after I found out who you were, that's how. I'm your mother so I can name you whatever I want," Mary said in a voice low enough where only the future Polly could hear it.

The two of them hugged each other tightly, and the future Polly then said good bye to everyone and returned to her proper time. When she returned, she found her Grandma Rose waiting for her.

"Did you create that crack in time that sent me to the past?" Polly Tyler asked as she saw the smile on her grandmother's face.

"You know me, Pol. I'm always trying to help the Web of Time along wherever I can," Rose admitted.

"My mother was so sad to see me go. I'm not sure I should have told her so much. Did I mess anything up?" Polly Tyler asked with concern.

"No. Not a thing. Everything is as it's supposed to be," Rose assured her.

"I'd still like to know why the Black Guardian wanted to kill me so badly. I've helped a lot of people and done some important things so I guess that's it. I still can't think of any big reason to want to erase me before I've even been born," Polly Tyler said with confusion.

"I suppose we'll never know. Who knows what motivates a crazy madman like that?" Rose said.

Polly knew that her grandmother was holding something back from her but didn't press the issue. She wondered if she would ever find out on her own.

Rose did know what the real reason had been. She knew that one day many, many years from now, Polly Tyler was going to become the White Guardian. She had seen it with the power of the Bad Wolf. Polly would take over from Ishtar when she was ready. She would then become the former Black Guardian's new boss ironically enough!

The Black Guardian of the past had had no idea what was going to happen to him of course. He had just wanted to either erase or enslave Polly Tyler before she could become his future competition someday. He had only gotten a general feeling of the threat that she would one day become while traveling through the timestream and had decided to take care of her on the spot.

Rose wondered if he thought that maybe she would appear to help her and keep her from dying when they attacked her in the Celestial Toyroom. This may have been a preliminary strike against someone that they thought could potentially keep them from winning. Whatever the reason, she was glad that it had failed.

In the present day, The Doctor and Ace were now ready to say their own good byes to the others. They wanted to put this place behind them as quickly as possible especially Ace. Now she had even more of a reason to hate circuses.

"What are you going to do now with the added years of life that you've been given, Polly?" the Doctor asked her.

"I don't know. I'd like to explore space again. Maybe the kids and I could go with you and Ace?" Polly asked hopefully.

"Well, WOTAN did say that I would become the Doctor's companion," Mary added.

"He also said that you would one day marry my son. My son is happily married already and has been for several centuries. Plus he's a little bit too old for you I think," the Doctor said.

"You have a son?" Ace asked in surprise.

"Yes, but he and I haven't gotten along so well since my wife died. We don't talk anymore," the Doctor said sadly.

"You never told me about having a family," Ace said miffed.

"I don't like to talk about it. It's very painful for me. My wife was killed by the Daleks," the Doctor admitted.

"I'm sorry," Ace said in an upset voice and said no more about the subject.

The Doctor gently patted her on the back to reassure her that he was alright.

"Can we come then?" Polly asked again as she tried to change the subject.

"You're asking the wrong Doctor," River finally spoke up.

"What?" Polly asked.

"I need to take you three with me. I believe I know where you're supposed to be, and it's not traveling with that Doctor. I believe you're supposed to meet a future Doctor," River said.

"Not just believe. You know, don't you? You seemed to recognize Mary from the start. You know that she's supposed to travel with a future me, don't you?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, she's one of your future companions just like WOTAN said. I can't tell you any more than that," River said.

"I understand. I guess all of that talk about her being married to my son was just a smokescreen for what the Guardian was really up to by attempting to kill her daughter who somehow developed incredible powers. I mean it's not like she's really going to wind up marrying my son," the Doctor said with a laugh.

"Spoilers," was all that River said as she gave him a wide grin.

"Harmony?" the Doctor asked uncertainly.

River said nothing more, and she linked hands with Polly, Mary, and Alex as the three of them prepared to go meet the Eleventh Doctor. River started to punch in coordinates for her Vortex Manipulator which this Doctor had been good enough to fix for her.

She paused before putting in the final number as she said, "It's been nice meeting this version of you. I'm really starting to like this version of you a lot better now. Before I was just lukewarm about you, but now I like you. You're in my top three favorite Doctors at least. Of course no one could beat my favorite, but I won't tell you which one he is."

"Who are you to me?" the Doctor asked.

"I'm not your wife if that's what you're asking. You'll see someday. You should know better than to ask me something like that anyway. Shame on you!" River said with a big tooth-filled grin.

The Doctor just stood there speechless. This woman really knew how to push his buttons whoever she was, and she seemed to enjoy every moment of it.

"I'm going to miss you, Harmony. I could really use you around the TARDIS sometimes. Anyone that can leave the Doctor that speechless is okay in my book," Ace said with a large smile.

"Who knows, Ace? Maybe you'll see me around again sometime. I mean I could always come back to visit, right?" River asked.

"I hope not," the Doctor said in a low voice.

"Doctor! Here I was complimenting you, and you go and say something like that. Now you've gone straight to the bottom of my list of favorite Doctors," River said in a joking tone.

The Doctor was left speechless again as Ace laughed her head off.

It was just then that a forgotten Drax, who had been watching helplessly all of this time while the Shadow and the Guardian had gone through with their dark plans and was now free of their control, finally spoke up and said, "Thete, do you think that you could give me a lift home once you pick your jaw up off of the ground?"

River waved good bye to both of them and left to find the Doctor and Rose wherever they were. She had some very important people to introduce them to after all. One of them might just turn out to be their daughter-in-law someday.

THE END

**River's story continues in The Further Adventures of River Song. Polly, Mary, and Alex will be seen soon in It's Better With Two. **


End file.
